“Violations of human rights are both a cause and a consequence of trafficking in persons” ("OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS" 9). One of the most severe violations of human rights that are prevalent today is undoubtedly the trafficking in human beings, especially women and girls. Trafficking in women and girls is a violation of human rights because trafficked women and girls are not treated as human beings but as commodities. They are exploited for work, especially sex work; they are deprived of their right to freedom and life, and are even denied access to health care. Although the trafficking of women and girls itself is human right, however, it is also a result of the violation of human rights since traffic women and girls have often experienced violations of their rights before being trafficked, which makes them vulnerable to being exploited and abused. The aim of this paper is to reveal how the trafficking of women and children is a violation of human rights.
Human trafficking can be defined as “[t]he recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion for [] the purpose of exploitation” ("Definition of Trafficking in Persons"). Although human trafficking is not a gender-neutral problem, however, it is women and girls who typically fall victim to trafficking. Factors such as discrimination, poverty, unemployment and violence tend to affect women and girls quite disproportionately. These factors contribute to making women and girls vulnerable to trafficking. Moreover, the lack of legal protection, combined with the lack of legal migration opportunities for particular types of work, considerably increases the risk for women and girls to fall victim to trafficking. Gender inequality, which is also a human rights violation, also plays an important role in the trafficking of women and girls.
Trafficking in women and girls is undoubtedly one of the most severe violations of human rights taking place in the world today. The trafficking in women and girls is a human rights violation because the fundamental rights that a human being, including women and girls, are entitled to are violated. Human rights apply to every human being, and based on the fundamental principles that humans are to be treated equally, with dignity, and are not to be discriminated. Similarly, like any human being, women and girls have rights to be treated equally when it comes to educational and employment opportunities. On the contrary, violence against women is regarded as a form of violence, and trafficking in women and girls can be considered as a severe form of gender-based violence ("48/104. Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women"). According to international human rights law, states are responsible of protecting women from violence; yet trafficking in women and girls prevails.
In a human trafficking situation involving women and girls, numerous the human rights are violated. Namely the rights equality, freedom of movement, to health care, just and favorable conditions, liberty, security, and many more are violated when women and girls are trafficked. Women and girls who are trafficked are often forcefully married, which is a breach of the right of a human to freely choose a spouse and consent to marriage. Additionally, women who are trafficked are usually subjected to cruel, degrading and human treatment such as rape or other serious physical or psychological violence. In extreme cases, when women and girls are systematically attacked and are exploited into enforced prostitution and sexual slavery, then the trafficking not only constitutes as a violation of human rights but also as a crime against humanity or a war crime. In such extreme cases, human trafficking may fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
A former female victim of human trafficking who was exploited into bonded labor explains how things we bad in the slums she was living in, how things were in dire straits, and how she was tricked. She explains how she fell for beautiful words and believable promises, all of which fell short in the end (Bales 128). Usually, these women are taken from far away from their homes to place that they are not accustomed to, in order to severe their connections to family and friends that could assist them. These women and girls are generally in debt and penniless, so they cannot escape even if they wanted to. Often women will even continue working in these dreadful and terrible conditions, hoping that they will receive some money that they can use to return back home. In countries where an identity card is required, the police may lock them up as “suspected criminals or vagrants” as they do not have one.
Considering the conditions of poverty existing in the world, women and girls may also fall victims to trafficking in the process of seeking economic refuge abroad. In fact, they may do this without any assurances and at grave personal risk. In most cases, women and girls who wish to work abroad are systematically lured and are sold in the transnational sex market as mere commodities. When it comes to the trafficking in women and girls, it is not limited to prostitution, but many forms of slavery are also embodied, which again makes it a severe violation of human rights. For instance, auctions are held in Belgrade where bidders are able to buy women and girls, and they inspect them like cattle after stripping them of their clothes. This is merely one of the many forms of trafficking in women and girls that exists today.
Women who are trafficked and exploited into prostitution are also locked up to prevent them from escaping, as was discovered in a building in New York that was being used as brothel. The windows in the rooms in the upper floors were barred to prevent the trafficked Thai women who were being used as prostitutes from escaping, and they were looked in those rooms when not working. The owner of the brothel testified at her trial that she had legally purchased these women paying a significant price for each (Ehrenreich and Hochschild 227). Numerous Greek policemen were arrested by the authorities for running trafficking rings in the country, and using the women and girls as foreign “call girls.” Women from Eastern Europe and Russia are often lured into coming to Greece by being promised a better life, but when are arrive their passports are snatched and they are sold to nightclub owners and are forced to prostitute (Kyle 178).
All of the above makes it apparent that the trafficking in women and girls is a severe breach of human rights. Even the OSCE Declaration on Trafficking in Human Beings regards the trafficking in human being as a human rights violation, and it states that “trafficking in human beings and other modern forms of slavery constitute an abhorrent violation of the dignity and rights of human beings” ("DECLARATION ON TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS"). Apart from a violation of human rights, human trafficking, including the trafficking in women and girls, is also an infringement of other rights and can lead to further breaches since trafficked women and girls lack protection. Considering the fact that the trafficking in women and girls is indeed a severe violation of human rights, this means that it is quite necessary to tackle this problem as soon as possible.
Works Cited
"48/104. Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women." UN.org. United Nations, 20 Dec 1993. Web. 26 Apr 2013.
"DECLARATION ON TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS." Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. OSCE, 7 Dec 2002. Web. 26 Apr 2013.
"Definition of Trafficking in Persons." United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes. UNODC. Web. 26 Apr 2013.
"OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS." Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. OHCHR. Web. 26 Apr 2013.
Bales, Kevin. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. California: University of California Press, 1999. Print.
Ehrenreich, Barbara, and Arlie Russell Hochschild. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy. 1st ed. New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2004. Print.
Kyle, David, and Rey Koslowski. Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives. Charles St Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. Print.
